Matt Wieters with Max Scherzer; Photo by @MomWithNatitude for TalkNats
For the second time in this early season, Max Scherzer had to be the stopper and end a long losing streak. It did not start pretty, but this game was the picture of perseverance from Max Scherzer and his battery-mate Matt Wieters (home run, single, 2 RBI) who got the team going. There was a renewed Bryce Harper today along with Moises Sierra putting the exclamation point on the final scoring in the 4-run 6th inning.
Every Nats batter today had at least one hit except Matt Adams who continued with the Nationals struggles in the #4 spot in the line-up where the batting average is .145 (9-62). The Nationals on this day blew the game open with a 4-run 6th inning started by a Wilmer Difo single followed by a Bryce Harper single that sent Difo sprinting to 3rd base. Bryce Harper stole 2nd base and Matt Wieters singled-in Difo. After a safety squeeze by Michael Taylor, Harper was ruled out at the plate but it was over-turned as Harper got his foot in ahead of the tag. Moises Sierra then doubled in two more runs. The final run of the game came from Wilmer Difo on another single. The Nationals scored 5 runs going station-to-station except for the Wieters home run.
Max Scherzer was behind by the score of 2-to-0 by the 3rd batter of the game, and then he shut down the Rockies retiring the next 20 batters in the game for a nice 7 innings of work and a much needed Curly W.
“You know what I liked about the at-bats?,” Dave Martinez said. “They started using the whole field. The boys played good all-around baseball today.”
